Captain.Kaulu

Why is that? I don't see the connection, and it's going to drive me crazy!

What do we know about the geographic and chronological relationship of The Emperor's Soul to Elantris? I seem to remember that it happens chronologically earlier, but can't remember where I got that from. And I caught a vague line in the book that makes it seem like the Rose Empire is kind of near Teod? ...

I can see why some people don't like Raoden and feel like he's "too perfect," not complicated enough, etc. But some people really are just genuine and pure, and Raoden managed to pull it off (for me) without being boring or unbelievable. I wouldn't want all of Brandon's characters to be like him, but somehow he still manages to be my favorite in Elantris. Hrathen is more interesting, yes. Better-written, probably. But not my favorite. Second-favorite would have to be Galladon. I find "Eeyore" characters hilarious ... Galladon reminds me a lot of Puddleglum from The Silver Chair, who is my favorite character in the Narnia Chronicles by far. I might not even have found Raoden interesting if Galladon hadn't been around. Raoden was interesting because of the philisophical nature of his optimism and faith in humanity, which would have been hard to see if he hadn't had a foil to explain it to.

If compounding is available, there are a ton of REALLY good choices, but I'd have a really hard time picking anything else over dual Chromium. I'm not an action hero or an aspiring politician/ruler, so I think infinite "great luck" is about the best thing I could get. If there are other Mistings in the world, then Chromium's allomantic power would also be a handy form of self-defense. If not, then it's useless ... but still worth it for compounding ability. If I were picking a non-compounding Twinborn combination, the choice is much trickier. Tons of awesome physical combos, but again ... I'm not sure my biggest needs in life are really physical. At the moment, I think I'll go with the answer of Allomantic bendalloy/Feruchemical brass. Having extra time when I'm stressed (and being able to share it with those nearby!) and never being too hot or cold sound like lovely powers to make the rest of my life work well.

You know what's REALLY scary? Every single nifty combo that people come up with in this thread ... the Lord Ruler should have been able to do. Thank Harmony he wasn't as much of a nerd as we are, amiright?

Good point on anyone being able to burn Lerasium etc. Although don't they have other properties besides just granting Allomancy? (I vaguely remember a statement that turning people into Mistborn wasn't the primary use of Lerasium.) If so, do we know whether anyone could get those other uses out of them? Or was "average Joe" only able to burn them in order to gain Allomancy? The only god-metal alloy that's really appeared in the story is Malatium. And I guess we never saw a Seer or a Gold Misting try to burn it. So yeah ... need more info, here. Debatable. Isn't compounding a double-strength power still going to be stronger than compounding a single-strength power? And there might be qualitative differences (does compounding Bronze necessarily allow piercing Copperclouds?) or differences in how fast you become a metal-dependent savant. But it's probably moot anyway. As I think about it more, I'm pretty sure the double-strength thing can't be done by Hemalurgy (has to combo with natural/Lerasium-based Allomancy), if only because the multiple spikes would have to occupy the same space.

Well, being a full Feruchemist and a full Allomancer (via Lerasium?), like the Lord Ruler pre-Hemalurgy, would be pretty epic. The kind of Compounding tricks that Rashek pulls with atium and Miles pulls with gold? Yeah, Rashek could have done that with all 50 metals. Wowzers. I actually think Awakening is one of the more flexible, amazingly useful magic systems we've seen in the Cosmere. Consider all the different things we've seen it do; then consider how Brandon has said it's much less-developed (compared to its potential) than the magic systems on other planets are. But it does have the catch that to be useful, you do have to have a bunch of Breath first, and acquiring that without harming other people's lives is pretty difficult (and expensive), so there's the constant guilt that would be involved. Hmmm, maybe I'll pass. So I guess overall, if "Mistborn + Feruchemist" aka "Twinborn x50" isn't an option, I'll go with AonDor ... Where are you getting the "32 at most" thing? After all, there are also 34 god-metals (including alloys)! So we're up to 100 spikes for ultimate Hemalurgic power ... assuming that you can't become "super-strength" at a power (like Vin's Bronze burning) by getting two Hemalurgic spikes. If you can, then 100 spikes turns into 150. Yikes. And gross.

I think Szeth had an opening where he could have killed Taravangian on a loophole, but it only lasted maybe five seconds, and he was very confused during those five seconds. So he'll probably blame himself in the future for not taking advantage, even though it's perfectly reasonable that he didn't seize the opportunity with perfect decisiveness. Anyway ... I feel like we can't really judge characters until we understand their motivations. So Szeth and Steris, to name two examples, I haven't decided yet how I really feel about them. * * * I guess I have simple tastes when it comes to least-favorite characters: I'm easily persuaded to hate characters who are pretty much just pure selfishness, while being just complex enough to be believable. So Straff Venture and KanPaar are the two candidates for "least favorite" who come to mind.

Sorry, I don't buy it. Everything else is pretty plausible, but Dalinar having a fedora? No way. He's much more of a fez type.

This is a modern connotation of the word Dominion. In the past, it was a much more positive meaning. I'm not convinced Skai was an evil shard, even if his Dakhor followers point in that direction.

If "shardwielding" is indeed a distinct type of magic, I would posit that it is the name for what Szeth does. We have been told he's not truly Surgebinding in the normal Nahel Bond method, but is doing "something different."

Yeah, that's still a very good possibility that people are forgetting about.

Doesn't work. Wax had already worked with Wayne for many years and was very familiar with speed bubbles by the time he shot Lessie. He would have recognized if that was how Tan pulled off his trick. Besides, even if Wax didn't have time to not-shoot after the speed bubble went up, the speed bubbles presumably deflect incoming bullets off-target the same way they deflect outgoing bullets.

Yes. In a confusing manner, this actually means that the spike that grants an Allomantic or Feruchemical power to a person might be a different metal than the metal that is burned or used as a metalmind in order to use the same power. To name one specific example that I can be sure is correct without having the book on hand, if you made someone into a Smoker using Hemalurgy, you would use a bronze spike even though the person would burn copper. From what I understood, the Hemalurgy effects that transfer "human" abilities only work for creatures that didn't have human abilities already. So what you say is true, if "one" is a kandra or koloss.

The first word can also be pronounced "day-oos."

I think you've nailed it, except for the agreeing with it part. Brandon does believe in good and evil as absolute concepts, and I agree that is reflected in the subtext of his writing. On the other hand, he also understands that people are not purely good or evil, and so he does a good job (most of the time) avoiding characters that are unbelievably morally polarized.

My thoughts exactly. Hmmm, not necessarily. I think everyone struggles with doubt, even if those with "unbreakable faith" are amazing at getting over it very quickly. In addition, even with unbreakable faith in God, there can still be struggles with believing in one's own strength and resolve, believing that the God you believe in will apply to you personally, and (especially in Joseph's case) struggling to forgive those who have wronged you.

This is all the evidence I need to conclude that Kaladin wasn't an intentional Joseph parallel (which I would have guessed anyway). But intentional or not ... I think reading Kaladin's struggles could be a powerful aid to getting interesting insights about Joseph's character; particularly his almost unbelievable unflagging positive attitude when put into terrible situations. Perhaps, like Kaladin, Joseph didn't have such an emotional-stability-superpower either, but had to struggle and fight his way through the whole time, and he just looks perfect once it's all over? Interesting.

I'm quite disappointed not to see Syl on this list. I was pretty sure she was going to be, not just a major viewpoint character, but one of the "eight to ten" characters whose backstory becomes a major subplot of a book. We've already got a backstory book for Kaladin (although Brandon has explicitly said that, if he does fewer than 10 different characters' backstories, there's a good chance we'll get another Kaladin book at some point. Presumably covering his time in Amaram's army after Tien's death, including the love story that's hinted at in a couple places). Shallan and Dalinar will be our next two backstories. And it seems pretty glaringly obvious that Jasnah, Szeth, and Taln will get their backstories told eventually too. (Taln's will be the last book, I'm guessing.) That leaves at least two "major viewpoint characters" who will also be "backstory characters." Any speculations here? My money's on Taravangian and the unnamed Herald, personally. (Adolin, for example, just doesn't seem like he has a mysterious enough past hinted at to become a backstory character.) ... and I'm still hoping that Syl will somehow break into the club, either because Brandon changes his mind about her becoming a major viewpoint, or because she's somehow the reincarnation of a Herald.

I actually liked the "spidery" look of his cloak -- which I see more as "crabby," crustacean rather than arachnoid. I'm pretty sure Whelan did that on purpose to match one of Roshar's major motifs. This.

Huh. I'd say this was just a coincidence -- that Brandon happened to dream up the same word twice, when in one of the two cases (Warbreaker) it actually didn't matter very much. But then again, that's what everybody thought about Hoid when he only had two appearances, too ...

I don't have an opinion about what kind Tien would have been, but ... yeah. That would explain a LOT of the foreshadowing that centered around his obsession with rocks.

As for the back flap, I don't think we have enough evidence for a conclusion yet, but it could always be the Nightwatcher ... Yeah, Brandon told me that at his last San Diego signing.

Well, as for 16, we're told that it has a lot of significance beyond just Scadrial. Preservation adopted it and used it as a "sign" because it was the theme number of Adonalsium already. (This is coming from one of Sazed's epigraphs in Hero of Ages.) It's not clear whether 16 was significant to Adonalsium for more reasons than the containment of 16 Intents that became the Shards after the Shattering, though. As for 10, the "first" place we see it show up in Cosmere lore is Brandon's meta-comment that there are 10 major shardworlds. This makes me think that it, like 16, has significance across the whole Cosmere, not just on Roshar (although I grant you it has a LOT of prevalence in Roshar). So I don't think we're going to see a "one" shard, and a "two" shard, and so forth.

Or maybe she just thinks she needs a Garnet like the other Soulcasters, when actually she doesn't ... ... oh wait. This is Jasnah we're talking about here. There's no way she wouldn't have experimented and figured out the limits of her powers!